Jenifer Grady

DirectorAmerican Library Association-Allied Professional Association
Jenifer Grady, MSLS, MBA, is Director of the American Library Association – Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA). ALA-APA was established by the American Library Association to fulfill two missions: supporting salary and status improvement initiatives and certifying library workers in specializations beyond their initial degree, whether it is an MSLS or a high school diploma. ALA-APA supports librarians, support staff, and others who want to make a difference in these two areas. Jenifer took this post after completing a Masters in Business Administration from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in her home city of Cleveland, Ohio. She enjoys the entrepreneurial challenges in her work and the fact that ALA-APA is helping us help ourselves. In this role she manages certification programs, promotes ALA-APA services, conducts the librarian and non-MLS salary surveys, plans conference programs, edits and writes for the ALA-APA monthly newsletter Library Worklife, fund-raises since ALA-APA has no membership, encourages library employees to celebrate National Library Workers Day on the Tuesday of National Library Week, and answers lots of questions about the difference between ALA and ALA-APA.

Jenifer was meant to be a librarian, and achieved this goal on a formal basis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she majored in Reference Services. She left UNC-CH for the National Library of Medicine, where she was an Associate in the year-long post-graduate program. Jenifer held primarily medical library positions, at the New York Academy of Medicine and Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. There she studied informatics and was the first product of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance. Jenifer has lived three times in Washington, DC, and the last time was for her first association position at the Academy for Educational Development.